The Choo Choo!

After the airport, we decided to go out to lunch with some of Maya's "China Sisters". The Choo Choo is a quaint little diner that utilizes a model train system to deliver baskets of food to the tables.

My kids were so mesmorized by the train, I don't think they took two bites of food, although they did manage to drink their banana milkshakes. They yelled "Choo Choo" every time the train made its' rounds.

More Choo Choo Pics!

Pic 1: Kai dives into his cupcake

Pic 2: Ileana and Sophie share a milkshake

Pic 3: Michal enjoys her cupcake

Welcome Home Nathan!

Today we went to the airport to welcome Nathan to America. The Kler family traveled with us back in 2005 when we adopted our daughters, and today, returned from China with their beautiful son. We met three other families who were all part of our 2005 travel group at the airport and made quite a welcoming crowd.

Sibling Bliss!

Maya and Kai asked to watch Caiou during quiet time today. When the show started, they were happily sitting at opposite ends of the couch. When I checked on them ten minutes later, I found them like this.

Happy Valentine's Day to Maya, Kai, and Cheeks!

Today, we went once again to the Independent Cat Society to play with the cats and of course to see Cheeks. Maya , Kai, and I had been visiting the cats over the past couple of weekends and after muliple visits, Cheeks was definately their favorite.

During our visit last weekend, Maya had overheard talk of somebody wanting to adopt Cheeks (which was us but she didn't know that). She cried the whole way home because she thought she would never see her again. I assured her that Cheeks was not being adopted right now and that the lady at the shelter guaranteed that Cheeks would be there on Saturday when we went to visit. She calmed immediately.

What Maya and Kai didn't know was that Dom and I had already completed the paperwork to adopt Cheeks and were planning on bringing her home on Valentine's Day.

During the week, the kids and I went shopping to buy all of the necessities for Cheeks. Maya and Kai thought that they were buying all of these things to donate for Cheeks at the shelter. The kids picked a cat bed, cat toys, a litter box, and lots of food. As we got to the shelter today, Maya said, "Why don't we keep Cheeks' new bed in the car until later. I bet she's gonna like it so much that she'll go right to sleep instead of play".

Cheeks was so happy to see Maya and Kai. As we were all standing in Cheeks' room, Dom and I asked Maya and Kai if they thought they might like to take care of a cat of their very own. Maya quickly replied "Cheeks?" We told her that we could take Cheeks home with us and be her forever family. She smiled like I have never seen her smile.

What a great Valentine's Day!

Maya's school Valentine's Day party!

Parent involvement is welcomed and encouraged at Maya's preschool. One way this is achieved is by allowing the parents to plan and carry out all of the holiday parties.

Today's party was a lot of fun. It kind of had a "Dora-ish" theme. We started the party by singing and dancing to guitar music. Then the kids had to complete three tasks in order to get to their craft and snack. The first was going fishing in the Valentine lake. Then they had to cross the Valentine forest in their potato sacks, and finally shake all of the Valentine hearts on the parachute.

The kids seemed to have a good time.

Before the party today, the kids made the cutest valentine boxes in their classroom.

"You Color My World"

Maya loved the idea of making her own crayons for her valentine treats for school. She and Kai had so much fun unwrapping the crayons, breaking them into tiny pieces, and organizing them into cupcake tins.

Once the crayons were melted into unique, round rainbow creations, Maya then needed to decorate each cut-out heart with stamps, attach the crayon to the valentine, and then sign her name. This was a bit more labor intensive than Maya had anticipated. After she had completed one valentine, she decided that she was done too.

Considering that she had only finished one valentine by the night before her school party, we decided to offer a bit of help. Our familycreated an assembly line around the kitchen table. We each held a stamp in hand with a different color stamp pad. The object was to stamp as many times possible in a 20 second period. The heart was then passed along the assembly line until it was covered with a multitude of different colored shapes and squiggles.

Maya then signed her name on each valentine. Dom and I are just relieved that there are only five kids in her class. What will we do next year when there are fifteen?